Italian diplomacy is under attack again. And behind the new ambushes there is once again the hand of the anarchists, who want Alfredo Cospito free. Gathered around the fate of the prisoner subjected to the 41 bis in Sassari, they acted by hitting the consulate general of Barcelona, the cables of a repeater in Turin and, if the investigation trail is confirmed, even the car of a diplomatic official in a few hours in Berlin, set on fire during the night. At the stake of the Audi in the German capital, the local police have not yet provided the details of the investigation. But the Rome prosecutor’s office has opened a file and suspects that the origin of the ambushes is precisely the anarchist one. After all, in recent days an inscription in favor of Cospito has also appeared in Berlin: “No 41 bis, free Alfredo”, in a neighborhood not far from that of the fire. And the embassy had asked the German police to step up surveillance measures, precisely in relation to the alarm triggered by the December arson attack on the car of the first diplomatic advisor of the Athens embassy, Susanna Schlein.
ANSA Agency
An agent was injured. The demonstration in the capital was not anticipated. Parades in Trieste and Turin. Sunday gathering in front of the Sassari prison (ANSA)
The tension on the case is very high again. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni intervened on the attacks on diplomatic targets, expressing “concern and attention to these new cases of violence against Italian diplomats”. “I have sent my solidarity and that of the Italian Government to the First Counselor of the Italian Embassy in Berlin, Luigi Estero, for the attack that caused the fire of his car in the German capital”, explained the premier, expected in Berlin next Friday for the first official visit to Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The news of the attacks was given by the Italian Foreign Ministry, with a note that arrived early in the morning. Antonio Tajani “personally and immediately contacted the Embassy in Berlin and the Consulate in Barcelona to express his solidarity and asked that full light be shed as soon as possible on the dynamics of these criminal acts”, the Farnesina also wrote, underlining that “the minister has ordered the immediate start of procedures for verifying and strengthening the diplomatic offices and personnel involved”. “The local police forces have carried out the necessary scientific and investigative surveys. In both cases, fortunately, no injuries have been reported”, the statement concluded.
The car burning in Berlin was reported to the police by witnesses at around 3.10am, according to the police briefing. And an Opel was also involved in the fire, according to the first reports. In the previous hours, in Barcelona, someone had broken the window of the building where the Consulate General of Italy is located, smearing the entrance wall – a bas-relief by the well-known Catalan sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs – with the words: “Libertat Cospido” , “Total Amnesty”. Explicit references to the anarchist, sentenced to 20 years in prison for a series of attacks claimed between 2003 and 2016. The newspaper El Periodico spoke of “five hooded men” recorded by a security camera, but the Catalan police did not confirmed, adding only that “there is an ongoing investigation”.
Alfredo Cospito, detained in the Bancali prison of Sassari under the 41 bis regime, began a hunger strike on 20 October last and lately his conditions have worsened to the point of inducing the National Guarantor of persons deprived of their liberty to intervene, asking immediate transfer to a structure capable of providing him with better assistance. And just in recent weeks an “international call to action” had started via the web on sites attributable to the anarchist galaxy, to reaffirm solidarity with the 56-year-old Turinese.
